Be Patient

1. Be patient, be patient, no longer despairing,
    Look upward, be hopeful, encourage your heart;
Tho’ bitter the cup that your soul has been sharing,
    Let thoughts of self pity now quickly depart.
He will not tarry, and leave us here grieving,
    Soon He will come, all His children receiving.
O wait now! the promise of glory, believing:
    Soon the King in His beauty for us shall appear.

2. Be patient, be patient, the light shining o’er you,
    Will guide thro’ the darkness that covers the way;
The Saviour has trod the rough pathway before you,
    Let not earth’s enchantments allure you astray.
Upward to God be the heart’s adoration,
    See from Him flowing pure streams of salvation.
Redemption is nearing! O, seek preparation!
    Soon the King in His beauty for us will appear.

3. Be patient, be patient, a pilgrim and stranger,
    Tho’ foes may assail, and the scoffers deride.
Thro’ toil and affliction, temptation and danger,
    The saints must be purified, made white and tried.
Take now the spirit of meekness adorning,
    Faithfully carry the last notes of warning.
Be watchful, and look for the dawn of that morning,
    When the King in His beauty for us shall appear.

4. Be patient, be patient, a little while longer,
    And Jesus the kingdom to us will restore.
Be cheerful, enduring, your faith growing stronger,
    Till trials are passed, and your conflicts are o’er.
Wait till the Lord all His saints will deliver,
    Love, peace and joy, will surround them forever;
They’re safe in that country, where tears will come never,
    With the King in His beauty they’ll reign evermore.

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This text comes from Annie Smith, early Advent pioneer and poet. Her book, Home Here, and Home in Heaven is also available on this website.

Patience is a quality that God especially mentions as being required by His children who live just before Jesus’ return. It is found in this verse:

Revelation 14
¹² Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Since this promise is found just after the third angel’s message of Revelation 14, a message which they were proclaiming, it held special significance for those early Adventists, and still holds for us who follow in their footsteps.

One reason why patience is needed in these last days, is that God does not overcome evil through force. His weapons are truth and love.

In her book on the life of Christ, Ellen White wrote,

God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power. – The Desire of Ages, p. 759

Mahatma Gandhi also realized this truth, and proclaimed it in these words:

All through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always.

Truth and love are planted as seeds of life deep in the soul, and they take time to grow to fruition. Likewise, the rejection of truth and love causes evil to grow out of control, and eventually it destroys itself. But the process takes time, and God’s children must wait, often long and weary hours, days, and years, for the full fruit of good and evil to be seen.

Tags: Advent, King, Patience, Pilgrim